Tentative deal sets Iraq exit date by 2011

Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert Burns, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Friday, August 22, 2008

Photo: Ali Abbas, AP

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, right, shake hands at a press conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that American and Iraqi officials agree that timetables should be set for a U.S. troop withdrawal, but conceded that nailing down a broader pact on future relations is difficult. (AP Photo/Ali Abbas, Pool) less

Iraq and the United States pushed close to a deal Thursday, setting a course for U.S. combat troops to pull out of major Iraqi cities by June, with a broader withdrawal from the long and costly war by 2011.

Subject to final approval by the top Iraqi leadership, the exit date for U.S. troops would be December 2011, although the Americans insist on linking that target to additional security and political progress.

President Bush has long resisted a timetable for pulling out, even under heavy pressure from a nation distressed by American deaths and discouraged by the length of the war that began in 2003. But that has softened in recent weeks.

The timing has major political importance in both Iraq and the United States.

The two contenders to replace Bush as commander in chief, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, spar almost daily over the future course of the war.

Obama wants all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months of his taking office, saying they are needed more urgently in Afghanistan. McCain says recent security improvements in Iraq show that decisions on the timing of further pullouts should be determined by circumstances on the ground rather than by prearranged timetables - a position the White House has vigorously held until recently.

The administration has inched toward the Iraqi view that setting at least a target date for withdrawal would make it politically palatable for Iraq's government to accept a substantial U.S. troop presence beyond this year.

The rationale for the pullout is that Iraqi security forces will be ready to stand on their own, although it remains possible that some U.S. military training role would continue. In Iraq, provincial elections are supposed to be held later this year, followed by national balloting in 2009.

In one key part of the draft agreement, private U.S. contractors would be subject to Iraqi law, unlike currently, but the American side held firm in its insistence that U.S. troops would remain subject exclusively to U.S. legal jurisdiction, officials said.

Immunity remains the main point of contention between the two sides in finalizing the agreement. The Iraqis are reluctant to allow U.S. military contractors to have free rein when outside U.S. bases and without any Iraqi legal authority over them, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe delicate negotiations.

There is an additional sense of urgency to complete a deal because the U.N. Security Council resolution that sets the legal basis for the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is due to expire at the end of this year.

Asked about withdrawal, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in Baghdad, "We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold are well worth having in such an agreement." Her use of the term "aspirational" suggested that the timetables would be linked in some undisclosed way to the attainment of measurable progress in the security, political and perhaps economic fields.

At a joint news conference, Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the two sides had accepted the draft agreement and would await a review by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi leaders - some of whom oppose parts of the deal - as well as the Iraqi parliament. The next step is consideration by al-Maliki and his executive council today.

Rice's visit was meant to push al-Maliki so he would take the draft agreement to Iraqis for approval, U.S. officials said.

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